Muddy Boot, Postma awards presented

During a Dec. 7 breakfast held in the DoubleTree by Hilton Oak Ridge, the East Tennessee Economic Council named its new “Muddy Boot Award” recipients — and also presented this year’s Postma Young Professional Medal.

During a Dec. 7 breakfast held in the DoubleTree by Hilton Oak Ridge, the East Tennessee Economic Council named its new “Muddy Boot Award” recipients — and also presented this year’s Postma Young Professional Medal.

The 2012 Muddy Boot honorees include Bonnie Carroll, chairman of the board and chief knowledge officer of Information International Associates; Jenny Freeman, vision implementation manager of Strata-G; and Jim Campbell, president of ETEC. While 2012’s Postma Young Professional Medal winner is Rebecca Crowe, small business advocate for Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

The Muddy Boot Award gets its name from the “sea of mud” that was Oak Ridge in its very early construction years from 1942 to 1945, while the award itself is “a tribute to the individuals who make East Tennessee a stronger region through their work and community activities.”

Referencing the Muddy Boot’s latest recipients, Barry Stephenson, chief executive officer of Materials and Chemistry Laboratory Inc. (MCLinc) and current ETEC board chair, stated: “Each of these honorees makes a strong personal commitment to building a better community. You see it in how they go about their work, their volunteer commitments in the community, and their personal values.”

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Parker Hardy of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce praised Bonnie Carroll as “a pioneer in her industry and in the Oak Ridge community,” and added: “She has been — and remains — in the forefront of transformation changes associated with the collection, storage, management and dissemination of data. She applied her technical and business acumen in a host of community endeavors as well. The Oak Ridge Chamber, ETEC, Rotary, the United Way and Altrusa are among the organizations that have benefited from her leadership.”

An ETEC release notes Carroll has participated in research and development projects related to information and knowledge management for almost four decades. In addition to her responsibilities in managing IIa, Carroll is executive director of CENDI, the federal scientific and technical information managers’ group, and has been a consultant to a number of federal science mission agencies. She serves on the National Academy of Science, National Research Council’s Board of Research Data and Information and is the U.S. national representative to International CODATA.

She served as the first executive secretary for two White House Science Office Interagency Working Groups, and has served as president of the American Society for Information Science & Technology and as chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Section on Information, Computing and Communications. Carroll has also been a consultant to foreign and international organizations including the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Kingdom of Jordan, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information.

Prior to founding IIa, Carroll worked at Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information as director of Program Development and International Activities and deputy and acting assistant manager for Information Services at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Page 2 of 3 - She holds a BA from Cornell University, and an MS in library and information science from Columbia University. Her award was presented by Congressman John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr., R-Tenn.

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In Jenny Freeman’s nomination letter, which an ETEC release noted “was signed by a host of public and private sector leaders,” Freeman is recognized for bringing “her passionate energy and inclusive productivity to bear on the region’s most important challenges — including job creation, worker safety, environmental stewardship and expanding opportunities for small businesses. … Jenny Freeman was born with a rare and unequivocal passion.”

As Strata-G’s vision implementation manager, Freeman creates networks and builds bridges for the company and its clients. She also works as the facilitator for the Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board.

Before coming to Strata-G in 2006, Freeman was executive director of the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association; and she helped grow ETEBA from 80 member companies to 150, and make its annual Business Opportunities Conference one of the largest of its kind in the Southeast.

One of her most notable recent accomplishments, the ETEC release points out, is the development and organization of the Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership — a group of DOE prime and subcontractors dedicated to performing work safely on the Oak Ridge sites. Freeman’s history also includes consulting for environmental organizations on issues such as clean air, hazardous waste laws and regulations, and land-use planning; and she is a longstanding member of Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning.

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Bob Van Hook and Homer Fisher, both past chairs of ETEC, praised ETEC president Jim Campbell for his almost two decades of “championing federal and state initiatives designed to create prosperity, promote regional development, and expand possibilities for growth in East Tennessee.”

Prior to joining ETEC, Campbell served as editor of The Oak Ridger newspaper and a contributing editor to the Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, a publication of the University of Tennessee’s Energy, Environment and Research Center. An Oak Ridge resident for more than 30 years, Campbell also has assisted in the publication of two books on Oak Ridge history, an ETEC release stated.

“Since assuming leadership of ETEC in 1995, Jim has led the organization to become one of the most effective in the country in supporting the local federal agenda, fostering economic spinoff opportunities and developing strong regional partners,” remarked Van Hook, while Fisher added: “Jim has been for many years the leader of Oak Ridge’s highly successful efforts to develop a common set of federal funding priorities among the contractors and community leaders, (and) he has made ETEC one of the most dynamic organizations of its kind anywhere.”

Page 3 of 3 - Campbell is past chair of the United Way of Anderson County and has served on numerous community boards.

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A founding member of both the Young Professionals of Oak Ridge and the Knoxville Area Urban League Young Professionals Programs, Rebecca Crowe was presented with the Postma Medal by Pat Postma during ETEC’s annual meeting and breakfast.

“The Postma Young Professional Medal was created to honor the accomplishments of young professionals who’ve made an impact and fostered a community culture in the region,” a release stated. “Former ORNL director Herman Postma epitomized this spirit during his life and his wife, Pat, continues the tradition of service today through her involvement in the Oak Ridge community.”

As the small business advocate and procurement section manager at ORAU, Crowe is responsible for overseeing small business outreach and mentoring efforts, and for awarding and administering subcontracts for projects that are unique in nature.

Crowe is a 2000 graduate of Oak Ridge High School; a 2005 graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in actuarial science; and completed her MS in engineering management at UTC in 2011.

Crowe is an active member in the Oak Ridge Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Men of Tomorrow Foundation, the Y-12 Community Relations Council, Oak Ridge Center for Leadership and Community Development, and more.